Wal-Mart Stores Inc is reportedly teaming its Sam's Club entity with Dell computers and software company eClinicalWorks, for selling a package comprising electronic health records (EHR) and practice management systems directly to physicians looking for electronic medical records. The proposal will likely bring about a significant stir in the EHR market.
According to the New York Times reports, the proposal, which will kick off this spring, would offer the doctors a desktop or laptop option, as Wal-Mart can exert its substantial buying influence to get cut-rate prices on hardware and software components.
The Wal-Mart move apparently times itself with the projected $17 billion promise of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, in forthcoming incentive payments to doctors as well as hospitals applying health care information technology, commencing in 2011.
With eClinicalWorks confirming the prospective link with Wal-Mart, observers opine that the astonishing disclosure would cause quite a few ripples in the industry. It would provide an electronic system to physicians at nearly half the price of most rivals - with the cost being less than $25,000 for the first doctor, and almost $10,000 each for additional physicians in a medical practice.
A spokeswoman for eClinicalWorks said: "This should put pricing pressure on the industry, making it more affordable for physician practices to implement electronic medical records systems."
Latest News
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Will Wal-Mart Repeat $4 Generics Success?
Wal-Mart announced that it would market electronic record systems to small physician practices, a group that has not adopted these systems as widely as integrated payer and provider groups such as the Veterans Administration and Group Health.
This is not the first time Wal-Mart has provided a low-cost alternative in healthcare. Milliman principal and consulting actuary William Pollock recently published research about the market-changing success of Wal-Mart’s $4 generic prescription drug offering.